Solitary chicken - need advice

[Spottyappy]

Would be grateful for more help on the slope in our garden, in relation to keeping my chooks area dry. I have edged it, and put bark chippings down, but the recent storms rendered the area totally soaked and useless. As well as now being very smelly. The area was grass, now just mud and bark(which will s"Ooops, word censored!"e up when get time).

The slope sems to be so bad, even though they are at the top of it, that the area just gets totally sodden with any amount of rain.Bearing in mind this is meant to be summer, how will the poor girls survive the winter! They free range most days, but have 2 days when I work when their time out is limited, and obviously if this already present me with such a problem, I can't imagine how awful winter will be for them.

I can't afford someone in to do a professionally built area,so any advice on what I myself can do would be appreciated. I haven't put a ground sheet down.

The problem seems to be the fact that we are on clay soil, and when it rains, the ground just seems to hold the wet.Combined with the fact the eglu and run are on an incline, and the whole thing isn't ideal!

Help please

Sandie

[Patricia W]

Any pictures so we can see the problem?

[Jules.]

Hmm.

Could you put some form of drainage in- nothing technical, just dig a hole before you get to where the eglu is, put some gravel or broken bricks in it & then fill it again. Makes a kind of soakaway?

If its any consolation my hens are on dry ground but are a bit whiffy at the mo too.

[Redwing]

Wood chips rather than bark may be a good idea as they drain a little better, B&Q sell them, the hardwood chips are really excellent

 

Improving the drainage may be a good idea

 

Your other option is to confine them to a run and cover the run even if you only keep them in when it is wet

[Snowy]

Definitely helps to cover the run when it's wet. Aubiose in the run is great when it's wet as it does seem to absorb it better.

[Pedro1962]

You have my sympathies and I am sure that the solution will be found.

 

Have you considered feeding your hens bokashi bran and/or garlic powder to tackle the smell issue at source?

 

Apart from that, can you realistically re-position the run to somewhere with better drainage or as suggested improve the drainage where it is?

 

Have you considered covering the run with a tarpaulin or corrugated PVC sheeting?

 

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Spottyappy]

Hi, not sure if can dig drainage, as garden not only sloped, but has french drains in, as we are high up, but in an area that could technically flood.I'd not want to upset the french drains, and I don't think they are deep down. The eglu is covered wih the big winter shade when it chucks, but I haven't as yet obtained a shower curtain/tarpaulin to put over it. I suspect that wouldn't wholly stop the problem because of the slope.

I will try and post a photo when get chance. Life is just manic right now, and could well do without my poor chooks being wet and muddy!

Do have a patio that is level, but my husband refuses to let me put them on it, as it's not that big and we do use it for BBq and storage etc. I do have a field of 3 1/2 acres, but it's 3 miles away, which if things do get really desperate I can resort to, but I really want the chooks at home!

Re the bran or garlic, when omlet delivered the hens, the delivery man advised that I shouldn't need to feed anything extra(besides grapes to bribe them!lol!) as the pellets contain all the hens need.

Having horses, I am not adverse to the countryside smells, but my neighbours may well be should the pong worsen as we live on a modern housing estate! I wondered if it was worse cos of the bark, rather than the heat?In process of clearing the bark totally so hopefully the smell will subside, helped by some citronella!Sadly hubby has bad back so can't even level the area to any extent. I don't get much time to do anything, but can't do diggin or lugging much heavy stuff either as have health issues that prevent me.

Will post the pic asap.Thanks all.

Sandie x

[Plum]

Hi there, agree with others about changing to woodchip and covering the run which will keep the run area reasonable.

I've found raking out the morning ultra smelly poo that they do while I am messing about with them straight away keeps it cleaner. (yours may not have mine's smelly habbit).

 

You are at the top of the slope so you shouldn't have the trouble of run off water draining into them.

With your grass slope, would it be worth dividing it in two so they have access to one half while the other is resewn and gets a chance to recover. Then alternate the areas?

 

My garden is on a steep slope but the are at the bottom and some water runs down to them so I am working on what to do. I've made a sloping roof for my cube run so water drains off to where I want it from the roof.

 

Once you have a run that's drier and less smelly perhaps you will need to restrict their free ranging when wet to preserve the grass on the slope. You could do a shallow gravel filled drain like Jules says running away from the area to take some of the wet.

 

British summers

[Bald Carl]

Hi Sandie,

my cube is in area which gets very waterlogged when there is heavy rain. I put some top soil inside the run to build up height of the floor inside the run. I also have some taraulin on the roof of the run to keep it dry. Every now and then, I get inside it with a fork and turn over the soil which also raises the level of the floor. They also get some

 

Long term I intend to get some 4 X 1 wood around the base of the run and put some more soil in to raise the floor height further. So far it has worked well.

 

 

good luck.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

[Spottyappy]

Hi, here's the links to a couple of photos showing the state of play at the minute. Not quite as bad as has been as past few days been dry. Only a imited grass area, which is why I wanted to leave the eglu on a permanent area to save the rest!

 

 

 

I've resized them for you . ANH

[Clash City Rocker]

Looks like the area mine have lived in for the last 2 years.

I got rid of the wood chip/bark as I found it kept the area damp for longer.

When it's dry it becomes one huge dustbath.

Add a few slabs to walk on and you'll be fine.

 

 

 

 

[chickencam]

We have clay soil and have the chooks on a permenant bark chipped area with no problems. We got them in the summer of 2007 so we know all about wet. The only difference is the depth of the bark, our is about 6 inches in the shallow areas and upto about 10 inches at it's deepest.

 

The only cover that we had during that first summer was the summer shade and we found that the poos washed away through the bark and they turned the area over pretty well. We had plastic corrugated sheet over the run over this last winter and that worked well. We change the top layer of bark about once a month.

 

We have an area which only just fits the eglu run, the eglu itself sits on a flagstone and the run is surrounded by planks

[Spottyappy]

Thanks folks. Thanx too for resizing the pics. Life is so manic that having got them dowload with help of daughter, I didn;t have time to stop to do anything else. !

Think may help if put larger sides on as the green ones I ahve aren't big,a nd then possibly more bark or just leave and see how bad it gets.. Have friend over mon who is good at diy, and maybe able to help with something, so alot of creeping and grovellin to be done I feel.We were having the garden stepped so it would be level in tiers, but husband is self employed and work dried up a few years ago, so we haven't been able to do that, which would've helped I think with keeping the hens drier. But, will invest in a tarpaulin, have several for covering hay etc but all too big or torn!I can try to tether it so it acts as a drain to take the water awayrather than it going in the hen's area. Wanted to get more hens but until this prob sorted, sticking with just our 2.

Thx folks! Sandie